A forum (sometimes called newsgroup or conference) is a particular type of online service, in which participants can meet to discuss a topic of common interest. Forums have become very popular in the last years; particularly, on the INTERNET there are literally thousands of forums covering every conceivable interest.
The forums are useful for acquiring a basic knowledge about a topic or for obtaining a historical perspective on trends and opinions. Moreover, the forums may be used to submit questions of different type, in order to receive corresponding answers provided by experts in the specific field.
Each message submitted to a forum (for its own nature) is always made available to all the participants, so as to be shared among the whole community. A drawback of this approach is that sometimes the message includes information the participant does not wish to disseminate. However, this information is often necessary, for example to put the experts in the position of answering the questions.
As a consequence, the participant is prevented from exploiting the services offered by the forum. This problem is particular acute in forums dealing with medical or legal topics, wherein the questions often relate to private matters that are strictly confidential.